Regulation of Axon termination – Mechanism Behind Neuron Development

Researchers at Scripps Institute have discovered the new understanding of how neuron termination is regulated

Researchers at Scripps Institute have revealed the mechanism of neuron development. The termination of a neuron is really important for the efficient and accurate construction of a nervous system, without controlled termination, the nervous system will in serious jeopardy.

Neurons are the specialized cells of the nervous system which transmit information by an electrochemical process. A neuron is made of 3 parts- dendrites, cell body, and axon. Axon is the extensions in a neuron which transmit the signals to other nerve cells.

TSRI Associate Professor Brock Grill, PhD

Researchers discovered the new understanding of how termination is regulated. Scientists were more focused on axon because, during the development of neuron, axon extends outward and change their growth under the influence of cellular guidance and form synapses.

Each axon has a specialized structure at the end called growth cone which is the reason for axon termination, on reaching the correct destination.

During their research, Grill and his colleagues, found that growth cone breakdown before axon gets terminated in C elegans. This is due to the signaling hub protein called RPM-1 which regulate the growth cone by collapsing it during axon termination.

According to the author, axon termination is protracted and is likely to make transition and termination permanent. During this study, Scientist also showed that signaling of RPM-1 destabilize nerve cell microtubule so that growth cone collapses which in turn leads to axon termination.They also found that microtubule stabilized Tau inhibits RPM-1 which is necessary for proper development of axon.

According to the researcher of the study “ People didn’t have this much knowledge about Tau mechanism of inhibiting RPM-1”. This study shows the power of Genetics”. This study also helped to link tau with neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and frontal lobe dementia.

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